Coil assembly of magnetic resonance imaging device

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure relates to a coil assembly of an MRI device. The MRI device may be configured to perform an MR scan on a subject. The coil assembly may include one or more coil units, a substrate, and a sensor mounted within or on the substrate. The one or more coil units may be configured to receive an MR signal from the subject during the MR scan. The substrate may be configured to position the one or more coil units during the MR scan. The one or more coil units may be mounted within or on the substrate. The sensor may be configured to detect a motion signal relating to a physiological motion of the subject before or during the MR scan.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No.201920155186.6, filed on Jan. 29, 2019 and Chinese Patent ApplicationNo. 201821115673.1, filed on Jul. 13, 2018, the contents of each ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) device, and in particular, to a coil assembly of an MRI device.

BACKGROUND

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices are widely used in medicalimaging. A subject, such as a patient, may be scanned by an MRI device,and a coil assembly of the MRI device may be used to detect MR signalsgenerated during the scan. In some occasions, the subject may undergo aphysiological motion (e.g., a cardiac motion, a respiratory motion,etc.) during an MR scan, which may affect imaging quality, for example,result in motion artifacts in a resulting MR image. A motion signalrelating to the physiological motion may need to be detected and takeninto consideration in MRI. Conventionally, a motion signal detectiondevice independent from the coil assembly may be used to detect a motionsignal, and the equipment complexity and cost may increase. For example,during a scan on the chest of a patient, one or more electrodes (e.g.,four electrodes representing four limbs of the patient) may be placed onthe skin of the patient to detect an electrocardiogram (ECG) signalrepresenting the cardiac motion of the patient. The electrode(s) may befixed on the patient by a user (e.g., a doctor) and connected to wires,which may cause a potential safety risk. As another example, a belt tiedaround the chest of the patient and/or a pressure measurement sensor maybe utilized to measure a respiratory signal of the patient.Alternatively, the patient may be trained to breathe at a certain paceand amplitude during the MR scan, which is difficult and time-consuming.Thus, it is desirable to provide a coil assembly which is capable ofdetecting both MR signals and motion signals, and effective systems andmethods for detecting a motion signal in MRI using the coil assembly,thereby reducing or mitigate the effect of the physiological motion andimprove imaging quality.

SUMMARY

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a coil assembly of anMRI device is provided. The MRI device may be configured to perform anMR scan on a subject. The coil assembly may include one or more coilunits, a substrate, and a sensor mounted within or on the substrate. Theone or more coil units may be configured to receive an MR signal fromthe subject during the MR scan. The substrate may be configured toposition the one or more coil units during the MR scan. The one or morecoil units may be mounted within or on the substrate. The sensor may beconfigured to detect a motion signal relating to a physiological motionof the subject before or during the MR scan.

In some embodiments, the substrate may include a proximal surface and adistal surface with respect to the subject. The proximal surface and thedistal surface may be opposite to each other. The sensor may be mountedon the proximal surface of the substrate.

In some embodiments, the physiological motion may include a cardiacmotion of the subject, and the sensor may include an electrocardiogram(ECG) sensor configured to detect a signal relating to the cardiacmotion of the subject. The ECG sensor may further include a signalemitter and a signal receiver. The signal emitter may be configured toemit a reference signal toward the subject, and the reference signal maybe reflected by the subject. The signal receiver may be configured toreceive at least a portion of the reflected reference signal from thesubject.

In some embodiments, the signal emitter may include a signal generatorconfigured to generate a preliminary reference signal, a signalamplifier configured to generate the reference signal by amplifying thepreliminary reference signal, and a transmitting antenna configured toemit the reference signal toward the subject.

In some embodiments, the signal receiver may include a receivingantenna, a signal amplifier, and a signal mixer. The receiving antennamay be configured to receive the at least a portion of the reflectedreference signal. The signal amplifier may be configured to amplify thereceived portion of the reflected reference signal. The signal mixer maybe configured to generate a mixed signal by mixing the reference signalwith the amplified portion of the reflected reference signal. The mixedsignal may be the signal relating to the cardiac motion of the subject.

In some embodiments, the signal receiver may further include a receivingantenna configured to receive at least a portion of the reflectedreference signal, a signal amplifier configured to amplify the receivedportion of the reflected reference signal, and a signal mixer configuredto generate a mixed signal by mixing the reference signal with theamplified portion of the reflected reference signal. The MRI device mayfurther include a signal processing component configured to determinethe signal relating to the cardiac motion of the subject based on themixed signal.

In some embodiments, the signal processing component may be integratedinto the ECG sensor.

In some embodiments, at least a portion of the signal receiver may beintegrated into the one or more coil units.

In some embodiments, the reference signal may be a continuous wavesignal with a time-varying frequency.

In some embodiments, the substrate may include at least one of fabric,plastic, polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyester,ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT),polycarbonate (PC), polyoxymethylene (POM), polyurethane (PU),polystyrene (PS), nylon, cotton, fiber, or resin.

In some embodiments, the physiological motion may include a respiratorymotion of the subject, and the sensor may include a respiratory signaldetector configured to detect a signal relating to the respiratorymotion of the subject.

In some embodiments, the respiratory signal detector may include amotion sensor and a pad. The motion sensor may be configured to detect asignal relating to the respiratory motion of the subject. The motionsensor may include at least one of a pressure sensor, an accelerometer,a speed sensor, or a gravity sensor. The pad may be configured toaccommodate the motion sensor. The pad may be configured to accommodatethe motion sensor.

In some embodiments, the coil assembly may further include a signaltransmission component. The signal transmission component may beoperably connected to the sensor and configured to transmit the motionsignal to a control device of the MRI device. The control device may beconfigured to control the MRI device according to the motion signal.

In some embodiments, the coil assembly may further include an MR signalprocessing device. The MR signal processing device may be operablyconnected to the one or more coil units and the signal transmissioncomponent. The MR signal processing device may be configured to processthe MR signal and transmit the processed MR signal to the signaltransmission component. The signal transmission component may be furtherconfigured to transmit the processed MR signal to the control device.

In some embodiments, the MR signal processing device may include an LNAand a filter. The LNA may be configured to amplify the MR signal. Thefilter may be configured to generate the processed MR signal byfiltering the amplified MR signal.

In some embodiments, the substrate may include two or more layers thatform a chamber, and at least a portion of the one or more coil units andthe sensor may be mounted within the chamber.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, an MRI system isprovided. The system may include an MRI device, at least one storagedevice, and at least one processor. The MRI device may include a coilassembly. The coil assembly may include one or more coil units, asubstrate configured to position the coil assembly during an MR scan ofa subject, and a sensor mounted within or on the substrate. The sensormay be configured to detect a motion signal of the subject. The at leastone storage device may include a set of instructions, and the at leastone processor may be configured to communicate with the at least onestorage device and the MRI device. When executing the set ofinstructions, the at least one processor may be configured to direct thesystem to perform the following operations. The system may receive amotion signal relating to a physiological motion of the subject from thesensor before or during the MR scan of the subject. The system maydetermine a control signal based on the motion signal by the at leastone processor. The system may transmit the control signal to the MRIdevice. The system may also apply the MR scan to the subject by the MRIdevice according to the control signal. The system may further receiveone or more MR signals of the subject from the one or more coil units.

In some embodiments, to transmit a control signal to control the MRIdevice according to the motion signal, the system may determine an MRsignal acquisition time based on the motion signal. The system may alsotransmit the control signal to the MRI device at the MR signalacquisition time. The control signal may further cause the MRI device toexecute the MR scan at the MR signal acquisition time.

In some embodiments, the motion signal may be received from the sensorduring the MR scan, and to transmit a control signal to control the MRIdevice according to the motion signal, the system may perform additionaloperations. The system may determine whether the physiological motion ofthe subject is smooth based on the motion signal. The system maytransmit the control signal to the MRI device. The control signal maycause the MRI device to terminate or pause the MR scan.

In some embodiments, the system may reconstruct one or more MR images ofthe subject based on the one or more MR signals of the subject. Thesystem may also correct the one or more MR images based on the motionsignal.

Additional features will be set forth in part in the description whichfollows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the artupon examination of the following and the accompanying drawings or maybe learned by production or operation of the examples. The features ofthe present disclosure may be realized and attained by practice or useof various aspects of the methodologies, instrumentalities andcombinations set forth in the detailed examples discussed below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is further described in terms of exemplaryembodiments. These exemplary embodiments are described in detail withreference to the drawings. These embodiments are non-limiting exemplaryembodiments, in which like reference numerals represent similarstructures throughout the several views of the drawings, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary MRI systemaccording to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary MRI device accordingto some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating exemplary hardware and/orsoftware components of a computing device according to some embodimentsof the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating exemplary hardware and/orsoftware components of a mobile device according to some embodiments ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary coil assemblyaccording to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary ECG sensor accordingto some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 7A to 7D are schematic diagrams illustrating exemplary coilassemblies according to some embodiments of the present disclosure

FIGS. 8A to 8B are schematic diagrams illustrating exemplary coilassemblies according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9A is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary arrangement ofcoil units according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9B is a schematic diagram illustrating another exemplaryarrangement of coil units according to some embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary referencesignal curve according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary ECG signalcurve according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary processing deviceaccording to some embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process for performingan MR scan on a subject according to some embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are setforth by way of examples in order to provide a thorough understanding ofthe relevant disclosure. However, it should be apparent to those skilledin the art that the present disclosure may be practiced without suchdetails. In other instances, well known methods, procedures, systems,components, and/or circuitry have been described at a relativelyhigh-level, without detail, in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuringaspects of the present disclosure. Various modifications to thedisclosed embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in theart, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to otherembodiments and applications without departing from the spirit and scopeof the present disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is not limitedto the embodiments shown, but to be accorded the widest scope consistentwith the claims.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularexample embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. As usedherein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” may be intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprise,”“comprises,” and/or “comprising,” “include,” “includes,” and/or“including,” when used in this specification, specify the presence ofstated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/orcomponents, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or moreother features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components,and/or groups thereof.

It will be understood that the term “system,” “unit,” “module,” and/or“block” used herein are one method to distinguish different components,elements, parts, section or assembly of different level in ascendingorder. However, the terms may be displaced by another expression if theyachieve the same purpose.

Generally, the word “module,” “unit,” or “block,” as used herein, refersto logic embodied in hardware or firmware, or to a collection ofsoftware instructions. A module, a unit, or a block described herein maybe implemented as software and/or hardware and may be stored in any typeof non-transitory computer-readable medium or another storage device. Insome embodiments, a software module/unit/block may be compiled andlinked into an executable program. It will be appreciated that softwaremodules can be callable from other modules/units/blocks or fromthemselves, and/or may be invoked in response to detected events orinterrupts. Software modules/units/blocks configured for execution oncomputing devices (e.g., processor 310 as illustrated in FIG. 3) may beprovided on a computer readable medium, such as a compact disc, adigital video disc, a flash drive, a magnetic disc, or any othertangible medium, or as a digital download (and can be originally storedin a compressed or installable format that needs installation,decompression, or decryption prior to execution). Such software code maybe stored, partially or fully, on a storage device of the executingcomputing device, for execution by the computing device. Softwareinstructions may be embedded in firmware, such as an EPROM. It will befurther appreciated that hardware modules/units/blocks may be includedof connected logic components, such as gates and flip-flops, and/or canbe included of programmable units, such as programmable gate arrays orprocessors. The modules/units/blocks or computing device functionalitydescribed herein may be implemented as software modules/units/blocks,but may be represented in hardware or firmware. In general, themodules/units/blocks described herein refer to logicalmodules/units/blocks that may be combined with othermodules/units/blocks or divided into sub-modules/sub-units/sub-blocksdespite their physical organization or storage.

It will be understood that when a unit, engine, module or block isreferred to as being “on,” “connected to,” or “coupled to,” anotherunit, engine, module, or block, it may be directly on, connected orcoupled to, or communicate with the other unit, engine, module, orblock, or an intervening unit, engine, module, or block may be present,unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. As used herein, the term“and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of theassociated listed items.

It will be understood that, although the terms “first,” “second,”“third,” etc., may be used herein to describe various elements, theseelements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only usedto distinguish one element from another. For example, a first elementcould be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element couldbe termed a first element, without departing from the scope of exampleembodiments of the present invention.

Spatial and functional relationships between elements (for example,between layers) are described using various terms, including“connected,” “engaged,” “interfaced,” and “coupled.” Unless explicitlydescribed as being “direct,” when a relationship between first andsecond elements is described in the present disclosure, thatrelationship includes a direct relationship where no other interveningelements are present between the first and second elements, and also anindirect relationship where one or more intervening elements are present(either spatially or functionally) between the first and secondelements. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being“directly” connected, engaged, interfaced, or coupled to anotherelement, there are no intervening elements present. Other words used todescribe the relationship between elements should be interpreted in alike fashion (e.g., “between,” versus “directly between,” “adjacent,”versus “directly adjacent,” etc.).

These and other features, and characteristics of the present disclosure,as well as the methods of operation and functions of the relatedelements of structure and the combination of parts and economies ofmanufacture, may become more apparent upon consideration of thefollowing description with reference to the accompanying drawings, allof which form a part of this disclosure. It is to be expresslyunderstood, however, that the drawings are for the purpose ofillustration and description only and are not intended to limit thescope of the present disclosure. It is understood that the drawings arenot to scale.

An aspect of the present disclosure relates to a coil assembly of an MRIdevice. The MRI device may be configured to perform an MR scan on asubject. The coil assembly may include one or more coil units, asubstrate, and a sensor. The coil unit(s) may be mounted within or onthe substrate and configured to receive an MR signal from the subjectduring the MR scan. The substrate may be configured to position the oneor more coil units and/or the sensor during the MR scan. The sensor maybe mounted within or on the substrate configured to detect a motionsignal relating to a physiological motion of the subject before orduring the MR scan. For example, the sensor may include an ECG sensorconfigured to detect an ECG signal relating to a cardiac motion of thesubject and/or a respiratory signal detector configured to detect arespiratory signal relating to a respiratory motion of the subject.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the sensor fordetecting a motion signal may be part of a coil assembly. Compared withusing a motion signal detection device independent from the coilassembly, using a coil assembly incorporating a motion signal detectiondevice may improve the utilization of the coil assembly and reducesystem complexity and cost.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary MRI system 100according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown inFIG. 1, the MRI system 100 may include an MRI device 110, a processingdevice 120, a storage device 130, one or more terminals 140, and anetwork 150. In some embodiments, the MRI device 110, the processingdevice 120, the storage device 130, and/or the terminal(s) 140 may beconnected to and/or communicate with each other via a wirelessconnection, a wired connection, or a combination thereof. Theconnections between the components in the MRI system 100 may bevariable. For example, the MRI device 110 may be connected to theprocessing device 120 through the network 150. As another example, theMRI device 110 may be connected to the processing device 120 directly.

The MRI device 110 may be configured to scan a subject (or a part of thesubject) to acquire image data, such as MR signals associated with thesubject. For example, the MRI device 110 may detect a plurality of MRsignals by applying an MR pulse sequence on the subject. In someembodiments, the MRI device 110 may include, for example, a magneticbody, a gradient coil, a display 111, a coil assembly 112, and a table113, or the like, or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, theMRI device 110 may be a permanent magnet MRI device, a superconductingelectromagnet MRI device, or a resistive electromagnet MRI device, etc.,according to types of the magnetic body. In some embodiments, the MRIdevice 110 may be a high-field MRI device, a mid-field MRI device, and alow-field MRI device, etc., according to the intensity of the magneticfield.

The display 111 may be configured to display data and/or informationrelating to the subject and/or the MRI device 110. For example, the dataand/or information may include an operation status of the MRI device 110(e.g., an operation status of the magnetic body, the gradient coil,and/or the coil assembly 112), information of the subject to be scanned(e.g., height, age, weight, a scanned position), a scanning protocol, amotion signal relating to a physiological motion of the subject, otherinformation relating to the physiological motion (e.g., whether thephysiological motion is smooth), or the like, or any combinationthereof. In some embodiments, the display 111 may display a motion curveof the subject representing the physiological motion signal of thesubject. In some embodiments, the display 111 may include a cathode raytube (CRT) display, a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic lightemitting display (OLED), a plasma display, or the like, or anycombination thereof. In some embodiments, the display 111 may be mountedon the MRI device 110 as shown in FIG. 1. Alternatively, the display 111may be integrated into a terminal device 140, such as a computer, alaptop, a cell phone, a mobile phone, a pad, a glass, a projector, avirtual reality device, or the like. In some embodiments, the display111 may be omitted.

In some embodiments, the subject may be placed and supported by thetable 113 during a scan of the subject. The table 113 may support andmove the subject into/out from a detection tunnel (e.g., a spacesurrounded by a magnetic body) of the MRI device 110. The subject may bebiological or non-biological. For example, the subject may include apatient, a man-made object, etc. As another example, the subject mayinclude a specific portion, organ, tissue, and/or a physical point ofthe patient. For example, the subject may include head, brain, neck,body, shoulder, arm, thorax, cardiac, stomach, blood vessel, softtissue, knee, feet, or the like, or a combination thereof. In someembodiments, the subject may be placed on the table 113 in a headfirst-prone position, a head first-supine position, a headfirst-decubitus right position, a head first-decubitus left position, afeet first-decubitus right position, a feet first-decubitus leftposition, a feet first-prone position, a feet first-supine position, orthe like.

The coil assembly 112 may be configured to emitted RF signals toward thesubject and/or detect MR signals from the subject. In some embodiments,the coil assembly 112 may include an emitting coil configured to emit anRF pulse toward the subject and/or a receiving coil assembly configuredto detect MR signals from the subject. In some embodiments, the coilassembly 112 may include one or more sensors configured to detect amotion signal relating to a physiological motion of the subject beforeand/or during the MR scan. More descriptions regarding the MRI device110 may be found elsewhere in the present disclosure. See, e.g., FIG. 2and relevant descriptions thereof.

For illustration purposes, a coordinate system including an X-axis, aY-axis, and a Z-axis is provided in FIG. 1. The X axis and the Z axisshown in FIG. 1 may be horizontal, and the Y-axis may be vertical. Asillustrated, the positive X direction along the X axis may be from theleft side to the right side of the MRI device 110 seen from thedirection facing the front of the MRI device 110; the positive Ydirection along the Y axis shown in FIG. 1 may be from the lower part tothe upper part of the MRI device 110; the positive Z direction along theZ-axis shown in FIG. 1 may refer to a direction in which the subject ismoved out of the scanning channel (or referred to as the bore) of theMRI device 110.

The processing device 120 may process data and/or information relatingto the MRI system 100, such as information obtained from the MRI device110, the storage device 130, the terminal(s) 140, etc. For example, theprocessing device 120 may generate an MR image by processing image data(e.g., MR signals) collected by the MRI device 110. As another example,the processing device 120 may determine a motion signal based oninformation detected by a sensor of the coil assembly 112. In someembodiments, the processing device 120 may be a single server or aserver group. The server group may be centralized or distributed. Insome embodiments, the processing device 120 may be local or remote. Forexample, the processing device 120 may access information and/or datafrom the MRI device 110, the storage device 130, and/or the terminal(s)140 via the network 150. As another example, the processing device 120may be directly connected to the MRI device 110, the storage device 130,the terminal(s) 140, or the like, to access information and/or data. Insome embodiments, the processing device 120 may be implemented on acloud platform. For example, the cloud platform may include a privatecloud, a public cloud, a hybrid cloud, a community cloud, a distributedcloud, an inter-cloud, a multi-cloud, or the like, or a combinationthereof. In some embodiments, the processing device 120 may beimplemented by a computing device 300 having one or more components asdescribed in connection with FIG. 3.

The storage device 130 may store data, instructions, and/or any otherinformation. In some embodiments, the storage device 130 may store dataobtained from the MRI device 110, the processing device 120, and/or theterminal(s) 140. For example, the storage device 130 may store MRsignals and/or motion signals of the subject received from the coilassembly 112. In some embodiments, the storage device 130 may store dataand/or instructions that the processing device 120 may execute or use toperform exemplary methods described in the present disclosure. In someembodiments, the storage device 130 may include a mass storage device, aremovable storage device, a volatile read-and-write memory, a read-onlymemory (ROM), or the like, or a combination thereof. Exemplary massstorage devices may include a magnetic disk, an optical disk, asolid-state drive, etc. Exemplary removable storage devices may includea flash drive, a floppy disk, an optical disk, a memory card, a zipdisk, a magnetic tape, etc. Exemplary volatile read-and-write memory mayinclude a random access memory (RAM). Exemplary RAM may include adynamic RAM (DRAM), a double date rate synchronous dynamic RAM (DDRSDRAM), a static RAM (SRAM), a thyristor RAM (T-RAM), a zero-capacitorRAM (Z-RAM), etc. Exemplary ROM may include a mask ROM (MROM), aprogrammable ROM (PROM), an erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), anelectrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), a compact disk ROM(CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk ROM, etc. In some embodiments, thestorage device 130 may be implemented on a cloud platform as describedelsewhere in the disclosure.

In some embodiments, the storage device 130 may be connected to thenetwork 150 to communicate with one or more other components in the MRIsystem 100 (e.g., the MRI device 110, the processing device 120, and/orthe terminal(s) 140). One or more components of the MRI system 100 mayaccess the data or instructions stored in the storage device 130 via thenetwork 150. In some embodiments, the storage device 130 may be part ofthe processing device 120 or the terminal(s) 140.

The terminal(s) 140 may be configured to enable a user interactionbetween a user and the MRI system 100. For example, the terminal(s) 140may receive an instruction to cause the MRI device 110 to scan thesubject from the user. As another example, the terminal(s) 140 mayreceive a processing result (e.g., an ECG curve and/or a respiratorysignal of the subject) from the processing device 120 and/or the coilassembly 112, and display the processing result to the user. In someembodiments, the terminal(s) 140 may be connected to and/or communicatewith the MRI device 110, the processing device 120, and/or the storagedevice 130. In some embodiments, the terminal(s) 140 may include amobile device 140-1, a tablet computer 140-2, a laptop computer 140-3, adisplay device 140-4, or the like, or a combination thereof. Forexample, the mobile device 140-1 may include a mobile phone, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a gaming device, a navigation device, a pointof sale (POS) device, a laptop, a tablet computer, a desktop, or thelike, or a combination thereof. As another example, the display device140-4 may include a cathode ray tube (CRT) display, a liquid crystaldisplay (LCD), an organic light emitting display (OLED), a plasmadisplay, or the like, or any combination thereof.

In some embodiments, the terminal(s) 140 may include an input device, anoutput device, etc. The input device may include alphanumeric and otherkeys that may be input via a keyboard, a touch screen (for example, withhaptics or tactile feedback), a speech input, an eye tracking input, abrain monitoring system, or any other comparable input mechanism. Theinput information received through the input device may be transmittedto the processing device 120 via, for example, a bus, for furtherprocessing. Other types of the input device may include a cursor controldevice, such as a mouse, a trackball, or cursor direction keys, etc. Theoutput device may include a display, a speaker, a printer, or the like,or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, the terminal(s) 140 maybe part of the processing device 120 or the MRI device 110.

The network 150 may include any suitable network that can facilitate theexchange of information and/or data for the MRI system 100. In someembodiments, one or more components of the MRI system 100 (e.g., the MRIdevice 110, the coil assembly 112, the processing device 120, thestorage device 130, the terminal(s) 140, etc.) may communicateinformation and/or data with each other via the network 150. Forexample, the processing device 120 may obtain image data (e.g., an MRsignal) from the MRI device 110 via the network 150. As another example,the processing device 120 may obtain user instructions from theterminal(s) 140 via the network 150. As a further example, theprocessing device 120 may obtain a motion signal of the subject from thecoil assembly 112 via the network 150. The network 150 may include apublic network (e.g., the Internet), a private network (e.g., a localarea network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN)), etc.), a wired network(e.g., an Ethernet network), a wireless network (e.g., an 802.11network, a Wi-Fi network, etc.), a cellular network (e.g., a Long TermEvolution (LTE) network), a frame relay network, a virtual privatenetwork (“VPN”), a satellite network, a telephone network, routers,hubs, switches, server computers, or the like, or a combination thereof.For example, the network 150 may include a cable network, a wirelinenetwork, a fiber-optic network, a telecommunications network, anintranet, a wireless local area network (WLAN), a metropolitan areanetwork (MAN), a public telephone switched network (PSTN), a Bluetooth™network, a ZigBee™ network, a near field communication (NFC) network, orthe like, or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, the network 150may include one or more network access points. For example, the network150 may include wired and/or wireless network access points such as basestations and/or internet exchange points through which one or morecomponents of the MRI system 100 may be connected to the network 150 toexchange data and/or information.

This description is intended to be illustrative, and not to limit thescope of the present disclosure. Many alternatives, modifications, andvariations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. The features,structures, methods, and characteristics of the exemplary embodimentsdescribed herein may be combined in various ways to obtain additionaland/or alternative exemplary embodiments. In some embodiments, the MRIsystem 100 may include one or more additional components, such as acontrol device configured to control the operation of the MRI device110. The control device may be an independent device of the MRI system100 or be part of the MRI device 110 or the processing device 120.Additionally or alternatively, one or more components of the MRI system100 may be omitted or replaced by another device that can realize thesame or similar function. In some embodiments, two or more components ofthe MRI system 100 may be integrated into a single component.Additionally or alternatively, a component of the MRI system 100 may bedivided into a plurality of sub-units. However, those variations andmodifications do not depart the scope of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary MRI device 110according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustratedin FIG. 2, the MRI device 110 may include a magnetic body 220, agradient coil 230, a coil assembly 112, and a control device 250.

The magnetic body 220 may generate a static magnetic field during thescanning of at least a portion of a subject. The magnetic body 220 maybe of various types including, for example, a permanent magnet, asuperconducting electromagnet, a resistive electromagnet, etc.

The gradient coil 230 may provide magnetic field gradients to the mainmagnetic field in an X direction, a Y direction, and/or a Z direction.As used herein, the X direction, the Y direction, and the Z directionmay represent an X axis, a Y-axis, and a Z axis in a coordinate system(e.g., a same or similar coordinate system as that described in FIG. 1).For example, the Z-axis may be along the axis of the magnetic body 220,the X axis and the Z axis may form a horizontal plane, and the X axisand the Y axis may form a vertical plane. In some embodiments, thegradient coil 230 may include an X-direction coil for providing amagnetic field gradient to the main magnetic field in the X direction, aY-direction coil for providing a magnetic field gradient to the mainmagnetic field in the Y direction, and/or Z-direction coil for providinga magnetic field gradient to the main magnetic field in the Z direction.In some embodiments, the X-direction coil, the Y-direction coil, and/orthe Z-direction coil may be of various shape or configuration. Forexample, the Z-direction coil may be designed based on a circular(Maxwell) coil. As another example, the X-direction coil and theY-direction coil may be designed on the basis of a saddle (Golay) coilconfiguration.

The coil assembly 112 may be configured to emitted RF signals toward thesubject and/or detect MR signals from the subject. In some embodiments,the coil assembly 112 may include an emitting coil 241 and/or areceiving coil assembly 242. The emitting coil 241 may be configured toemit signals (e.g., RF signals) toward the subject to excite nucleus inthe subject to provide a resonation. The receiving coil assembly 242 mayreceive MR signals emitted from the subject 210 caused by theresonation. In some embodiments, the emitting coil 241 and the receivingcoil assembly 242 may be integrated into one same coil. In someembodiments, the coil assembly 112 may be of various types including,for example, a quadrature detection (QD) orthogonal coil, a phased-arraycoil, a specific element spectrum coil, a birdcage coil, a solenoidcoil, a saddle coil, a Helmholtz coil, a loop coil, etc. In someembodiments, the coil assembly 112 may be a volume coil (e.g., abirdcage coil) that can accommodate the entire body of the subject or alocal coil (e.g., a loop coil, a solenoid coil) that covers a portion ofthe subject. In some embodiments, the coil assembly 112 may be aphased-array coil that includes a plurality of coil units, each of whichmay detect MR signals independently. For example, the coil assembly 112may be an array coil with a plurality of channels. The count of thechannels may be, for example, 4, 8, 16, 24, or 32. In some embodiments,the coil assembly 112 may be placed on a table (e.g., the table 113) ofthe MRI device 110 or on the body surface of the subject during a scan.For example, during a scan of the heart of the subject, the coilassembly 112 may be placed on the chest of the subject. Optionally, thecoil assembly 112 may be attached to the body of the subject via, forexample, a strap or tape. As another example, the coil assembly 112 maybe placed on the abdomen of the subject configured as a spinal coilplaced on the table during a scan of the chest and/or the abdomen of thesubject. As yet another example, the coil assembly 112 may be configuredas a head coil placed on the table during a scan of the head of thesubject.

In some embodiments, the subject may undergo physiological motion(s),such as a cardiac motion, a respiratory motion, a blood flow, agastrointestinal motion, a skeletal muscle motion, a brain motion, orthe like before and/or during an MR scan. The coil assembly 112 mayinclude one or more sensors (or detectors) configured to detect one ormore motion signals, such as an electrocardiogram (ECG) signal relatingto the cardiac motion, an electromyography (EMG) signal relating to theskeletal muscle motion, an electroencephalogram (EEG) signal relating tothe brain motion, a respiratory signal relating to the respiratorymotion, or the like before and/or during the MR scan. As used herein,detecting or determining a motion signal relating to a specificphysiological motion of the subject may include determining the motionsignal itself (e.g., an ECG signal represented by an ECG curve asindicated in FIG. 11) and/or determining information relating to thesignal (e.g., a motion cycle, a motion amplitude, etc.). In someembodiments, the coil assembly 112 may include a respiratory signaldetector and/or an ECG sensor. The respiratory signal detector may beused to detect a signal relating to the respiratory motion (alsoreferred to as a respiratory signal) of the subject. The ECG sensor maybe used to detect a signal relating to the cardiac motion (also referredto as an ECG signal) of the subject. More descriptions regarding thecoil assembly 112 and the sensor(s) may be found elsewhere in thepresent disclosure. See, e.g., FIG. 5 and relevant descriptions thereof.

The control device 250 may be connected to and/or communicate with oneor more components of the MRI system 100 (e.g., one or more othercomponents of the MRI device 110, the processing device 120, theterminal 140, etc.), and configured to control the one or morecomponents. For example, the control device 250 may receive aninstruction for scanning (e.g., a scanning protocol) from a terminal140, and control the MRI device 110 to perform a scan according to theinstruction. As another example, as shown in FIG. 2, the control device250 may be connected to and control the coil assembly 112, the magneticbody 220, and the gradient coil 230. In some embodiments, the coilassembly 112 may transmit a detected motion signal and/or the MR signalsto the control device 250. The control device 250 may control one ormore components of the MRI device 110, (e.g., the magnetic body 220, thegradient coil 230, the coil assembly 112) according to the motion signalas described elsewhere in this disclosure (e.g., FIG. 13 and therelevant descriptions).

It should be noted that the example in FIG. 2 and the descriptionthereof is merely provided for the purposes of illustration, and notintended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. For personshaving ordinary skills in the art, multiple variations and modificationsmay be made under the teachings of the present disclosure. However,those variations and modifications do not depart from the scope of thepresent disclosure.

It is understood that the connections between components of the MRIdevice 110 in FIG. 2 are illustrative. Any two components of the MRIdevice 110 may be connected or not. The connection between twocomponents of the MRI device 110 may be a one-way connection or atwo-way connection. The connection between two components of the MRIdevice 110 may include a wired connection and/or a wireless connection.The wired connection may include a metal cable, an optical cable, ahybrid cable, a welding connection (e.g., a soldering connection), orthe like, or any combination thereof. The wireless connection mayinclude a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), aBluetooth, a ZigBee, a Near Field Communication (NFC), or the like, orany combination thereof. In some embodiments, the MRI device 110 mayinclude one or more additional components or one or more componentsdescribed above may be omitted. For example, the control device 250 maybe integrated into another component of the MRI system 100, such as theprocessing device 120. As another example, the control device 250 may bedesigned as a device independent from the MRI device 110.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating exemplary hardware and/orsoftware components of a computing device 300 according to someembodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, one or morecomponents of the MRI system 100 may be implemented on one or morecomponents of the computing device 300. Merely by way of example, theprocessing device 120 and/or the terminal(s) 140 may be implemented oneor more components of the computing device 300, respectively.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, the computing device 300 may include aprocessor 310, a storage 320, an input/output (I/O) 330, and acommunication port 340.

The processor 310 may execute computer instructions (program code) andperform functions of the processing device 120 in accordance withtechniques described herein. The computer instructions may includeroutines, programs, objects, components, signals, data structures,procedures, modules, and functions, which perform particular functionsdescribed herein. For example, the processor 310 may process a motionsignal of a subject obtained from a coil assembly of an MRI device. Theprocessor 310 may also control the MRI device to perform a scan on thesubject according to the motion signal.

In some embodiments, the processor 310 may include a microcontroller, amicroprocessor, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC), anapplication specific integrated circuits (ASICs), anapplication-specific instruction-set processor (ASIP), a centralprocessing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a physicsprocessing unit (PPU), a microcontroller unit, a digital signalprocessor (DSP), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), an advancedRISC machine (ARM), a programmable logic device (PLD), any circuit orprocessor capable of executing one or more functions, or the like, orany combinations thereof.

Merely for illustration purposes, only one processor is described in thecomputing device 300. However, it should be noted that the computingdevice 300 in the present disclosure may also include multipleprocessors, thus operations of a method that are performed by oneprocessor as described in the present disclosure may also be jointly orseparately performed by the multiple processors. For example, if in thepresent disclosure the processor of the computing device 300 executesboth operations A and B, it should be understood that operations A andstep B may also be performed by two different processors jointly orseparately in the computing device 300 (e.g., a first processor executesoperation A and a second processor executes operation B, or the firstand second processors jointly execute operations A and B).

The storage 320 may store data/information obtained from the MRI device110, the terminal(s) 140, the storage device 130, or any other componentof the MRI system 100. In some embodiments, the storage 320 may includea mass storage device, a removable storage device, a volatileread-and-write memory, a read-only memory (ROM), or the like, or anycombination thereof. In some embodiments, the storage 320 may store oneor more programs and/or instructions to perform exemplary methodsdescribed in the present disclosure. For example, the storage 320 maystore a program for the processing device 120 to generate a controlsignal of an MRI device based on a motion signal of a subject scanned orto be scanned by the MRI device.

The I/O 330 may input or output signals, data, or information. In someembodiments, the I/O 330 may enable a user interaction with theprocessing device 120. In some embodiments, the I/O 330 may include aninput device and an output device as described elsewhere in thisdisclosure (e.g., FIG. 1 and the relevant descriptions).

The communication port 340 may be connected to a network (e.g., thenetwork 150) to facilitate data communications. The communication port340 may establish connections between the processing device 120 and theMRI device 110, the terminal 140, or the storage device 130. Theconnection may be a wired connection, a wireless connection, or acombination of both that enables data transmission and reception. Thewired connection may include an electrical cable, an optical cable, atelephone wire, or the like, or any combination thereof. The wirelessconnection may include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, WiMax, WLAN, ZigBee, mobilenetwork (e.g., 3G, 4G, 5G, etc.), or the like, or a combination thereof.In some embodiments, the communication port 340 may be a standardizedcommunication port, such as RS232, RS485, etc. In some embodiments, thecommunication port 340 may be a specially designed communication port.For example, the communication port 340 may be designed in accordancewith the digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM)protocol.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating exemplary hardware and/orsoftware components of a mobile device according to some embodiments ofthe present disclosure. In some embodiments, one or more components ofthe MRI system 100 may be implemented on one or more components of themobile device 400. Merely by way of example, a terminal 140 may beimplemented on one or more components of the mobile device 400.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the mobile device 400 may include acommunication platform 410, a display 420, a graphics processing unit(GPU) 430, a central processing unit (CPU) 440, an I/O 450, a memory460, and a storage 490. In some embodiments, any other suitablecomponent, including but not limited to a system bus or a controller(not shown), may also be included in the mobile device 400. In someembodiments, a mobile operating system 470 (e.g., iOS, Android, WindowsPhone, etc.) and one or more applications 480 may be loaded into thememory 460 from the storage 490 in order to be executed by the CPU 440.The applications 480 may include a browser or any other suitable mobileapps for receiving and rendering information relating to the MRI system100. User interactions with the information stream may be achieved viathe I/O 450 and provided to the processing device 120 and/or othercomponents of the MRI system 100 via the network 150.

To implement various modules, units, and their functionalities describedin the present disclosure, computer hardware platforms may be used asthe hardware platform(s) for one or more of the elements describedherein. A computer with user interface elements may be used to implementa personal computer (PC) or any other type of work station or terminaldevice. A computer may also act as a server if appropriately programmed.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary coil assembly 112according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown inFIG. 5, the coil assembly 112 may include a substrate 510, one or morecoil units 520, one or more sensors 530, an MR signal processing device540, and a signal transmission component 550. In some embodiments,during a scan by an MRI device, the coil assembly 112 may be placed on atable of the MRI device or a specific portion of a subject to be scannedas described in connection with FIG. 2.

The substrate 510 may be configured to mount and/or position one or morecomponents of the coil assembly 112. In some embodiments, the substrate510 may include a single layer. One or more components of the coilassembly 112 (e.g., the coil unit(s) 520 or a portion thereof) may bemounted on the single layer. Alternatively, the substrate 510 mayinclude two or more layers that form one or more chambers. One or morecomponents of the coil assembly 112 may be mounted within a chamber oron an external surface of the substrate 510. Such substrate includingtwo or more layers that forms one or more chambers may be also referredto as a housing.

In some embodiments, the coil unit(s) 520 (or a portion thereof) may beaccommodated within the substrate 510, and the substrate 510 may beconfigured to position the coil unit(s) 520 on the specific portion ofthe subject to be scanned. Optionally, the coil unit(s) 520 may includea plurality of coil units, which are mounted symmetrically with respectto a midline of the substrate 510. Additionally or alternatively, thesensor(s) 530 may be mounted on or within the substrate 510, and thesubstrate 510 may be configured to position the sensor(s) 530 on alocation to detect a specific motion signal (e.g., near the heart todetect an ECG signal or near the abdomen to detect a respiratorysignal).

In some embodiments, the substrate 510 may include a proximal surfaceand a distal surface opposite to each other. The proximal surface may beclose to the subject and the distal surface may be further away,compared to the proximal surface, from the subject during a scan. Insome embodiments, a component of the coil assembly 112 may be mounted onan external surface of the substrate 510 and/or within the substrate510. For example, the coil unit(s) 520 may be mounted within thesubstrate 510 (e.g., on an internal side of the proximal surface of thesubstrate 510). As another example, a sensor 530 may be mounted withinthe substrate 510 or on an external surface of the substrate 510, suchas an external surface the proximal surface or the distal surface. Asyet another example, the signal transmission component 550 may bemounted on an external surface of the distal surface or the proximalsurface. In some embodiments, the sensor(s) 530 may include a pluralityof sensors mounted on different positions. For example, a sensor may bemounted on the proximal surface of the substrate 510 and another sensormay be mounted within the substrate 510. As another example, the sensorsmay both be mounted within the substrate 510.

In some embodiments, the substrate 510 may be made of a flexiblematerial, which is flexible or deformable to fit the scanned subject.Exemplary flexible materials may include plastic, fabric, polyethylene(PE), polypropylene (PP), polyester, ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA),polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), polycarbonate (PC), polyoxymethylene(POM), polyurethane (PU), polystyrene (PS), nylon, cotton, fiber, resin,or the like, or any combination thereof. Optionally, the substrate 510may include one or more layers of a flexible material. Alternatively,the substrate 510 may include multiple layers of two or more flexiblematerials, in which at least two layers include different flexiblematerials. For example, the substrate 510 may be configured as a bandagewhich is stretchable, bendable, twistable, and deformable to fit thescanned subject. In some embodiments, the substrate 510 may be made of anonflexible material which is rigid. The substrate 510 may have anysuitable shape and size. In some embodiments, the substrate 510 mayinclude one or more of hollow openings. The one or more hollow openingsof the substrate 510 may make the substrate 510 be more flexible and/ordeformable to fit the scanned subject. Additionally or alternatively,the one or more hollow openings may be used to dissipate heat generatedby the coil assembly 112 and/or reduce the weight of the coil assembly112.

The coil unit(s) 520 may be configured to receive MR signal(s) from thesubject during the scan of the subject. In some embodiments, the coilunit(s) 520 may include a plurality of coil units, each of which may beconfigured to receive MR signal(s) from the subject during the scanindependently or jointly. The coil units may be arranged side by sidealong at least one direction as described in connection with FIGS. 9Aand 9B. In some embodiments, the coil assembly 112 may include an ECGsensor 531. The coil unit(s) 520 may serve as at least a portion of asignal receiver of the ECG sensor 531 as described in connection withFIG. 6. In some embodiments, the coil unit(s) 520 may be made of aflexible conductor material (e.g., copper), a liquid metal, or the like,or any combination thereof. For example, a coil unit may be stretchableand move as an integral piece or relative to another coil unit.

In some embodiments, the coil unit(s) 520 may be operably connected tothe MR signal processing device 540. The MR signal(s) received by thecoil unit(s) 520 may be transmitted to the MR signal processing device540 for further processing. For example, the MR signal processing device540 may process the MR signal(s) by performing a signal amplification, asignal filtering, a signal modulation, a signal demodulation, or thelike, or any combination thereof.

The MR signal processing device 540 may include any component that canimplement the functions of the MR signal processing device 540. In someembodiments, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the MR signal processing device540 may include a low noise amplifier (LNA) 541 and a filter 542. TheLNA 541 may be configured to amplify the MR signal(s) to generateamplified MR signal(s). In some embodiments, a gain of the LNA 541 mayaffect a signal-to-noise ratio of the amplified MR signal(s). In orderto reduce the signal-to-noise ratio of the amplified MR signal(s), anLNA 541 with a high gain (e.g., a gain higher than a threshold) may beutilized. The filter 542 may be configured to generate the processed MRsignal(s) by filtering the amplified MR signal(s). In some embodiments,signals out of a specific frequency band may be filtered by the filter542 to avoid an interference between signals of different frequencybands.

In some embodiments, the MR signal processing device 540 may beconnected to and/or communicate with the signal transmission component550 as shown in FIG. 5. For example, the MR signal processing device 540may transmit the processed MR signal(s) to the signal transmissioncomponent 550. The signal transmission component 550 may furthertransmit the processed MR signal(s) to the control device 250. In someembodiments, the MR signal processing device 540 may be omitted, and thecoil unit(s) 520 may be directly connected to the signal transmissioncomponent 550 as indicated by a dotted arrow in FIG. 5. The MR signal(s)received by the coil unit(s) 520 may be directly transmitted to thecontrol device 250 via the signal transmission component 550 withoutbeing processing by the MR signal processing device 540. Alternatively,the signal transmission component 550 may be omitted or integrated intothe MR signal processing device 540. The MR signal processing device 540may be configured to process the MR signal(s) and transmit the processedMR signal(s) to the control device 250.

The sensor(s) 530 may be configured to detect a motion signal relatingto a physiological motion of the subject before and/or during the MRscan of the subject. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the sensor(s) 530may include an ECG sensor 531 for detecting an ECG signal relating to acardiac motion of the subject and a respiratory signal detector 532 fordetecting a respiratory signal relating to a respiratory motion of thesubject.

In some embodiments, a detected motion signal may include informationrelating to a corresponding physiological motion of the subject. Theinformation relating to a physiological motion may include, for example,a motion rate, a motion amplitude (or displacement), a motion cycle, amotion phase, etc. For example, the ECG signal may indicate cardiaccycle(s) of the subject, as well as changes of heart rate and/or cardiacmotion amplitude over the cardiac cycle(s) as shown in FIG. 11. Acardiac cycle may include a plurality of cardiac phases, such as systole(during which the left and right ventricles contract and eject bloodinto the aorta and pulmonary artery, respectively) and diastole (duringwhich the ventricles are relaxed). As another example, the respiratorysignal may indicate a respiratory cycle of the subject, as well as arespiratory displacement, a respiratory rate, and/or a respiratoryfrequency, etc. The respiratory cycle may include a plurality ofrespiratory phases, such as an inspiratory phase (during which the chestof the subject expands and air flows into the lungs) and an expiratoryphase (during which the chest shrinks and the air is pushed out of thelungs). In some embodiments, a motion cycle (e.g., a cardiac orrespiratory cycle) may be used to determine an MR signal acquisitiontime as described elsewhere in this disclosure (e.g., FIG. 11 and therelevant descriptions).

In some embodiments, the ECG sensor 531 and the respiratory signaldetector 532 may be placed at their respective positions during the MRscan of the subject by the substrate 510. For example, the ECG sensor531 may be placed near the chest of the subject. The respiratory signaldetector 532 may be placed on, for example, the chest, the abdomen, orthe back of the subject. In some embodiments, the sensor(s) 530 may beactuated during a scan of a specific portion of the subject. Forexample, the ECG sensor 531 may be actuated to perform its functionbefore and/or during a scan of the chest of the subject. The respiratorysignal detector 532 may be actuated to perform its function beforeand/or during a scan of, for example, the chest, the abdomen, or theback of the subject. In some embodiments, the coil assembly 112 mayinclude two units, one of which includes an ECG sensor 531 and the otherof which includes a respiratory signal detector 532. Each unit mayinclude one or more similar components as the coil assembly 112, such asthe substrate 510, the coil unit(s) 520, or the like. In someembodiments, one of the ECG sensor 531 and the respiratory signaldetector 532 may be omitted.

In some embodiments, the ECG sensor 531 may include a signal emitter, asignal receiver, and a signal processing component. The signal emittermay be configured to emit a reference signal toward the subject, and thereference signal may be reflected by the subject. The signal receivermay be configured to receive at least a portion of the reflectedreference signal from the subject. The signal processing component beconfigured to determine an ECG signal or information relating to the ECGsignal by processing the reference signal and/or the received reflectedreference signal. More descriptions regarding the ECG sensor 531 may befound elsewhere in the present disclosure. See, e.g., FIG. 6 andrelevant descriptions thereof.

In some embodiments, the respiratory signal detector 532 may include amotion sensor configured to detect a respiratory signal and a padconfigured to accommodate the motion sensor. Exemplary motion sensors ofthe respiratory signal detector 532 may include a pressure sensor, anaccelerometer sensor, a speed sensor, a gravity sensor, or any sensorthat can detect the respiratory signal of the subject. In someembodiments, the respiratory signal detector 532 may include a pressuresensor and a pressure pad. The pressure sensor may be mounted within thepressure pad. The pressure pad may be placed on, for example, the chest,the abdomen, and/or the back of the subject. The pressure sensor maydetect a pressure change of the chest, the abdomen, and/or the back ofthe subject caused by the respiratory motion of the subject. Thepressure sensor or another processing device may generate therespiratory signal by processing the pressure change. In someembodiments, the respiratory signal detector 532 may be mounted on theproximal surface of the substrate 510 (e.g., a center position of theproximal surface).

In some embodiments, the sensor(s) 530 may be directly connected toand/or communication with one or more components of the MRI system 100.Additionally or alternatively, the sensor(s) 530 may be operablyconnected to the signal transmission component 550 and communicate withone or more components of the MRI system 100 via the signal transmissioncomponent 550. For example, the motion signal(s) detected by thesensor(s) 530 may be transmitted to the control device 250 via thesignal transmission component 550. In some embodiments, the motionsignal(s) may be analyzed by one or more components of the MRI system100 (e.g., the sensor(s) 530 itself, the processing device 120, a signalprocessing component described hereinafter) to guide the operation ofthe MRI device 110. For example, based on a motion signal, an MR signalacquisition time for the MRI device 110 to perform the MR scan may bedetermined. As yet another example, if a motion signal acquired duringan MR scan indicates that the physiological motion of the subject is notsmooth, the MRI device 110 may be caused to pause or terminate the MRscan. More descriptions regarding the analysis of the motion signal(s)may be found elsewhere in the present disclosure. See, e.g., FIG. 13 andrelevant descriptions thereof.

The signal transmission component 550 may be configured to establishconnection(s) between a component of the coil assembly 112 and one ormore components of the MRI system 100, such as the control device 250,the processing device 120. For example, the signal transmissioncomponent 550 may establish a connection between the control device 250and the sensor(s) 530, and a connection between the control device 250and the MR signal processing device 540 as shown in FIG. 5. In someembodiments, the signal transmission component 550 may include acommunication port (e.g., the communication port 340) to establish awired connection and/or a wireless connection between two components.Additionally or alternatively, the signal transmission component 550 mayinclude one or more signal processing components (such as a wave trap,an amplifier, a filter, a processor) configured to process a signal tobe transmitted.

It should be noted that the example in FIG. 5 and the above descriptionthereof is merely provided for the purposes of illustration, and notintended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. For personshaving ordinary skills in the art, multiple variations and modificationsmay be made under the teachings of the present disclosure. However,those variations and modifications do not depart from the scope of thepresent disclosure.

In some embodiments, one or more components of the coil assembly 112 maybe omitted or be replaced by one or more components that can realizesame or similar functions. For example, the filter 542 of the MR signalprocessing device 540 may be omitted. Additionally or alternatively, thecoil assembly 112 may further include one or more additional components.For example, the coil assembly 112 may include one or more signaltransmission components. Merely by way of example, the coil assembly 112may include two signal transmission components, one of which is used totransmit the motion signal(s) detected by the sensor(s) 530, and theother of which is used to transmit the MR signal(s) received by the coilunit 520. As another example, the coil assembly 112 may include acircuit mounted within the substrate 510. One or more components (e.g.,the coil unit(s) 520, the sensor 530, etc.) of the coil assembly 112 maybe mounted on the circuit board.

In some embodiments, two or more components of the coil assembly 112 maybe integrated into one component. For example, the MR signal processingdevice 540 may be integrated with the signal transmission component 550.In some embodiments, the connections between components of the coilassembly 112 may be variable. Any two components of the coil assembly112 may be connected or not, and a connection between two components maybe a one-way connection or a two-way connection.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary ECG sensor 531according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The ECG sensor531 may be configured to determine an ECG signal and/or informationrelating to the ECG signal of a subject 640 before and/or during an MRscan of the subject 640. As shown in FIG. 6, the ECG sensor 531 mayinclude a signal emitter 610, a signal receiver 620, and a signalprocessing component 630.

The signal emitter 610 may be configured to emit a reference signaltoward the subject 640 or a portion of the subject 640 (e.g., the chestof the subject 640). In some embodiments, the reference signal may be aradio-frequency (RF) signal, a continuous wave, a pulse signal, or thelike. In some embodiments, the frequency of the reference signal may begreater than a threshold frequency (e.g., 1 GHz, 2 GHz, 3 GHz, 5 GHz, 10GHz, 15 GHz, etc.). In some embodiments, the reference signal may be acontinuous wave signal with a time-varying frequency. For example, thefrequency of the reference signal may have a linear change or a steppingchange over time. For illustration purposes, FIG. 10 illustrates afrequency curve of an exemplary reference signal 1000 according to someembodiments in the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 10, thereference signal 1000 is a continuous wave including a plurality ofsignal cycles with a frequency band B and a center frequency L. Thereference signal 1000 may have a repetition period T and the frequencyof the reference signal 1000 changes linearly in each signal cycle.

In some embodiments, the signal emitter 610 may include any componentthat can emit the reference signal. For example, as illustrated in FIG.6, the signal emitter 610 may include a signal generator 611, a signalamplifier 612, and a transmitting antenna 613. The signal generator 611may be configured to generate a preliminary reference signal andtransmit the preliminary reference signal to the signal amplifier 612.The signal amplifier 612 may be configured to generate the referencesignal by amplifying the preliminary reference signal. The referencesignal may be transmitted from the signal amplifier 612 to thetransmitting antenna 613, and the transmitting antenna 613 may beconfigured to emit the reference signal toward the subject 640. Thetransmitting antenna 613 may include a resonant antenna, a non-resonantantenna, or any other type of antenna. In some embodiments, the signalemitter 610 may be connected to a signal mixer 623 of the signalreceiver 620 and transmit the reference signal to the signal mixer 623.

In some embodiments, one or more components of the signal emitter 610may be omitted. For example, the signal amplifier 612 may be omitted.The preliminary reference signal emitted by the signal generator 611 mayserve as the reference signal and be transmitted toward the subject 640via the transmitting antenna 613 directly.

The reference signal emitted toward the subject 640 may be reflected bythe subject 640. The signal receiver 620 may be configured to receive atleast a portion of the reflected reference signal. In some embodiments,the signal receiver 620 (or a portion thereof) may be integrated intocoil unit(s) (e.g., the coil unit(s) 520) of an MRI device. Thefrequency of the reference signal and/or the reflected reference signalmay be associated with the center frequency of the MRI device (e.g., 64MHz for a 1.5 T MRI device, 128 MHz for a 3.0 T MRI device). Forexample, the operation frequency of the coil unit(s) may be equal to orsubstantially equal to the center frequency of the MRI device. Thefrequency of the reference signal and/or the reflected reference signalmay be different from the center frequency but within a frequency bandthat can be received by the coil unit(s). In this way, the reflectedreference signal may be able to be received by the coil unit(s) anddistinguished from MR signals according to their respective frequencies.In some embodiments, the difference between the center frequency of theMRI device and the frequency of the reflected reference signal (or thereference signal) may be smaller than a threshold frequency, such as 0.5Hz, 1 Hz, or 2 Hz. In some embodiments, the reflected reference signalmay have a same frequency as the reference signal but a different phasecompared with the reference signal. The phase difference between thereflected reference signal and the reference signal may reflect acardiac motion of the subject 640, and be used to determine the ECGsignal of the subject 640.

In some embodiments, the signal receiver 620 may include any componentthat can receive at least a portion of the reference signal reflectedfrom the subject 640. As illustrated in FIG. 6, the signal receiver 620may include a receiving antenna 621, a signal amplifier 622, and asignal mixer 623. The receiving antenna 621 may be configured to receiveat least a portion of the reflected reference signal from the subject640 and transmit the received reflected reference signal to the signalamplifier 622. The receiving antenna 621 may include a resonantreceiving antenna, a non-resonant receiving antenna, or an antenna ofanother type. In some embodiments, the frequency of the receivedreference signal may be within a frequency band that can be received bythe receiving antenna 621.

The signal amplifier 622 may be configured to amplify the receivedportion of the reflected reference signal and transmit the amplifiedportion of the reflected reference signal to the signal mixer 623. Thesignal mixer 623 may be configured to generate a mixed signal by mixingthe reference signal emitted by the signal emitter 610 with theamplified portion of the reflected reference signal. The mixed signalmay include information relating to the cardiac motion of the subject640. In some embodiments, the signal mixer 623 may be operably connectedto the signal processing component 630 and transmit the mixed signal tothe signal processing component 630 for further processing.

The signal processing component 630 may be configured to determine theECG signal relating to the cardiac motion of the subject based on themixed signal. For example, the signal processing component 630 maygenerate an ECG curve representing the ECG signal and/or determineinformation relating to the cardiac motion of the subject 640, such as acardiac cycle, a heartbeat rate (or a change of the heartbeat rate), amotion amplitude, etc. As another example, the signal processingcomponent 630 may determine a smooth period of the cardiac motion (e.g.,diastole or a portion of the diastole) according to the ECG signal. Moredescriptions regarding the smooth period of the cardiac motion may befound elsewhere in the present disclosure. See, e.g., FIG. 11 andrelevant descriptions thereof.

In some embodiments, the determined ECG signal may relate to a specificphysical point of the heart of the subject 640. For example, an ECGcurve indicating a motion amplitude of the specific physical point atdifferent times may be generated. Merely by way of example, assumingthat the signal emitter 610 may emit a reference signal s_(T)(t) in atime cycle represented by Equation (1) below:

$\begin{matrix}{{{s_{T}(t)} = {\exp \left( {j\left( {{2\pi \; f_{c}t} + {\pi \; \frac{B}{T}t^{2}} + \varphi} \right)} \right)}},} & (1)\end{matrix}$

where t represents a fast-time (i.e., a period between a time point whenthe signal emitter 610 emits the reference signal and a time point whenthe signal receiver 620 receives at least a portion of the reflectedreference signal is received by); f_(c) represents a center frequency ofthe reference signal; T represents a repetition period of the frequencyof the reference signal; B represents a frequency band of the referencesignal;

$\frac{B}{T}$

represents a slop of a frequency change of the reference signal; and ϕrepresents a preliminary phase of the reference signal.

The subject 640 may undergo a cardiac motion before and/or during an MRscan. A distance from a specific physical point on the heart of thesubject 640 to the signal receiver 620 (e.g., the receiving antenna 621)may vary with a slow-time τ and be denoted as R(τ). The distance R(τ)may indicate the position and/or the motion amplitude of the specificphysical point at different times. A reflected reference signal S_(R)(t)of the reference signal s_(T)(t) may be represented by Equation (2)below:

$\begin{matrix}{{{S_{R}(t)} = {\sigma \; {S_{T}\left( {t - \frac{2{R(\tau)}}{c}} \right)}}},} & (2)\end{matrix}$

where c represents the velocity of light and a represents a constantparameter. A mixed signal S_(m)(t) may be generated by mixing thereference signal s_(T)(t) and the reflected reference signal S_(R)(t).The mixed signal S_(m)(t) may be represented by Equation (3) below:

$\begin{matrix}{{{S_{m}(t)} = {{{s_{T}(t)}{S_{R}^{*}(t)}} = {\sigma \mspace{11mu} {\exp \left( {j\left( {\frac{4\; \pi \; {{BR}(\tau)}t}{cT} + \frac{4\pi \; f_{c}{R(\tau)}}{c} + \varphi_{2}} \right)} \right)}}}},} & (3)\end{matrix}$

where S_(R)*(t) represents a conjugated signal of the reflectedreference signal S_(R)(t), and ϕ₂ represents a phase difference.

In some embodiments, a frequency f_(b) of an ECG signal at the specificphysical point, which changes with time, may be determined based on themixed signal S_(m)(t). For example, the frequency f_(b) may bedetermined by filtering the mixed signal S_(m)(t). The R(τ) of thespecific physical point may be further determined according to Equation(4) below:

$\begin{matrix}{f_{b} = {\frac{2\; {{BR}(\tau)}}{cT}.}} & (4)\end{matrix}$

In some embodiments, for a plurality of physical points on the heart ofthe subject 640, the signal processing component 630 may determine anECG signal relating to each physical point. Optionally, the signalprocessing component 630 may determine an ECG signal relating to thewhole heart based on the ECG signal relating to each of the physicalpoints. In some embodiments, the signal processing component 630 may beoperably connected to one or more components of the MRI system 100(e.g., the control device 250) via the signal transmission component 550or directly. Optionally, the signal processing component 630 maytransmit a processing result or an intermediate result to a componentconnected to the signal processing component 630. For example, thedetermined ECG signal of the subject 640 may be transmitted to aprocessing device (e.g., the processing device 120). The processingdevice may control the MRI device according to the ECG signal directlyor via the control device 250. In some embodiments, the signalprocessing component 630 may be omitted or integrated into anotherprocessing device (e.g., the processing device 120). The functions ofthe signal processing component 630 may be implemented by the processingdevice. In some embodiments, the functions of the signal processingcomponent 630 may be implemented by the signal processing component 630and another processing device (e.g., the processing device 120) jointlyor separately.

It should be noted that the example illustrated in FIG. 6 and the abovedescriptions thereof are intended to be illustrative, and not to limitthe scope of the present disclosure. Many alternatives, modifications,and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Thefeatures, structures, methods, and other characteristics of theexemplary embodiments described herein may be combined in various waysto obtain additional and/or alternative exemplary embodiments. In someembodiments, the ECG sensor 531 may include one or more additionalcomponents and/or one or more components of the ECG sensor 531 describedabove may be omitted. For example, the signal amplifier 622 and/or thesignal processing component 630 may be omitted. In some embodiments, acomponent of the ECG sensor 531 may be integrated with another componentof the ECG sensor 531 or another device of the MRI system 100. Forexample, the receiving antenna 621 and the signal amplifier 622 may beintegrated into a signal component used to receive and amplify at leasta portion of the reflected reference signal. As another example, atleast a portion of the signal receiver 620 (e.g., the signal amplifier622, the signal mixer 623) may be integrated into the coil unit(s). Theintegrated coil unit(s) may be configured to receive both MR signals andat least a portion of the reflected reference signal. As yet anotherexample, the signal amplifier 622 and/or the signal mixer 623 may beintegrated into the signal processing component 630. In someembodiments, an amplifier described herein may incorporate therein afilter to improve signal transmission quality by filtering a signal tobe amplified by the amplifier or an amplified signal generated by theamplifier.

FIGS. 7A and 7B are schematic diagrams illustrating an exemplary coilassembly 700A according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.The coil assembly 700A is an exemplary embodiment of the coil assembly112 as described elsewhere in this disclosure (e.g., FIGS. 2 and 5 andthe relevant descriptions).

The coil assembly 700A may include a substrate 510A. FIG. 7A illustratesthe substrate 510A and components of the coil assembly 700A outside thesubstrate 510A. FIG. 7B illustrates components of the coil assembly 700Ainside the substrate 510A. As shown in FIG. 7A, the coil assembly 700Aincludes two signal transmission components 550 mounted on an externalsurface of the substrate 510A. The substrate 510A includes a pluralityof hollow openings 560.

As shown in FIG. 7B, a sensor 530 for detecting a motion signal, aplurality of coil units 520, and a circuit board 710 are accommodated inthe substrate 510A. In some embodiments, the coil units 520 and/or thesensor 530 may be mounted on the circuit board 710 via a mountingmechanism, such as a glue or an adhesive (e.g., an epoxy structuraladhesive, an acrylic structural adhesive, a silicone structuraladhesive, or the like, or any combination thereof). Alternatively, thecoil units 520 and/or the sensor 530 may be integrated into the circuitboard 710. In some embodiments, the sensor 530 may include a signalemitter (e.g., the signal emitter 610) and a signal receiver (e.g., thesignal receiver 620). Optionally, the signal receiver (or a portionthereof) may be integrated into the coil units 520. In some embodiments,the coil units 520 and the sensor 530 may share a power supply, or beprovided with an independent power supply, respectively. In someembodiments, the circuit board 710 may include one or more hollowopenings.

In some embodiments, each of the signal transmission components 550 mayestablish a connection between a component of the coil assembly 700A andanother component of the MRI system 100 (e.g., the control device 250).For example, one of the signal transmission components 550 may beoperably connected to the sensor 530 for transmitting the motion signaldetected by the sensor 530, and the other one may be operably connectedto the coil units 520 for transmitting the MR signals detected by thecoil units 520. In some embodiments, the coil assembly 700A may includea predetermined count of signal transmission components 550.Alternatively, the count of the signal transmission components 550 maybe determined based on actual needs. For example, the count of thesignal transmission components 550 may be determined based on anarrangement of the coil units 520, for example, more signal transmissioncomponents 550 may be needed if the size of coil units 520 exceeds athreshold size in order to improve the signal transmission quality. Insome embodiments, the signal transmission components 550 may be mountedon any position of the coil assembly 700A. For example, a signaltransmission component 550 may be mounted on an external surface of thesubstrate 510A, so that heat generated by the signal transmissioncomponent 550 can easily be dissipated without affecting the operationof the coil assembly 700A.

FIGS. 7C and 7D are schematic diagrams illustrating an exemplary coilassembly 700B according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.The coil assembly 700B may be similar to the coil assembly 700A, exceptfor certain components or features. As shown in FIGS. 7C and 7D, thecoil assembly 700B includes a substrate 5106, a sensor 530, and threesignal transmission components 550. The substrate 5106 has more hollowopenings than the substrate 510A of the coil assembly 700A. The sensor530 of the coil assembly 700B is mounted on a first surface of the coilassembly 700B as shown in FIG. 7C. The signal transmission components550 of the coil assembly 700B are mounted on a second surface oppositeto the first surface of the coil assembly 700B as shown in FIG. 7D. Insome embodiments, in operation, the first surface may be close to asubject to be scanned, and the second surface may be spaced furtherapart from the subject compared to the first surface.

FIGS. 8A and 8B are schematic diagrams illustrating exemplary coilassemblies 800A and 800B according to some embodiments of the presentdisclosure. The coil assemblies 800A and 800B are exemplary embodimentsof the coil assembly 112. Each of the coil assemblies 800A and 800Bincludes a respiratory signal detector 532 and a signal transmissioncomponent 550.

As shown in FIG. 8A, the coil assembly 800A further includes a substrate510C. The respiratory signal detector 532 and the signal transmissioncomponent 550 of the coil assembly 800A are both mounted on an externalsurface of the substrate 510C. As shown in FIG. 8B, the coil assembly800B further includes a substrate 510D. The substrate 510D has arelatively larger thickness than the substrate 510C. The respiratorysignal detector 532 and the signal transmission component 550 of thecoil assembly 800B are both mounted within the substrate 510D.

It should be noted that the examples in FIG. 7A to 8B are merelyprovided for the purposes of illustration, and not intended to limit thescope of the present disclosure. For persons having ordinary skills inthe art, multiple variations and modifications may be made under theteachings of the present disclosure. However, those variations andmodifications do not depart from the scope of the present disclosure.For example, the shape, size, and position of a component illustrated infigures are illustrative and can be modified. Merely by way of example,in the coil assembly 800B, the signal transmission component 550 may bemounted on an external surface of the substrate 510D.

FIG. 9A is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary arrangement ofcoil units 520A according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.The coil units 520A are exemplary embodiments of the coil unit(s) 520 asdescribed in connection with FIG. 5. As shown in FIG. 9A, the coil units520A include six coil units (e.g., coil units 520A-1, 520A-2, and520A-3), which are arranged in two rows along a first directionindicated by a line 910 and three columns along a second directionindicated by a line 920. The first direction and the second directionmay form an angle α that is greater than 0 degree and smaller than 90degrees as shown in FIG. 9A. In some embodiments, two adjacent coilunits 520A may overlap. For example, the coil unit 520A-1 may partiallyoverlap the coil unit 520A-3 along the first direction, and partiallyoverlap the coil unit 520A-2 along the second direction as shown in FIG.9A. In some embodiments, one or more decoupling techniques, such as anoverlapping decoupling, a capacitive decoupling, an inductor decoupling,or the like may be utilized to eliminate or reduce coupling betweenadjacent overlapping coil units.

FIG. 9B is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary arrangement ofcoil units 520B according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.The coil units 520B may be arranged in a similar manner as the coil unit520A, except that the first direction along which a row of coil units520B are arranged and the second direction along which a column of coilunits 520B are arranged are perpendicular to each other as shown in FIG.9B. In some embodiments, a signal emitter 610 of an ECG sensor (notshown in FIG. 9B) may be mounted on the left portion of the coil units520B (e.g., a portion which is adjacent to the heart of a subject duringa scan) as illustrated in FIG. 9B. The coil units 520B (or a portionthereof) may serve as a signal receiver of the ECG sensor. For example,the signal emitter 610 may emit a reference signal toward a subject, andthe coil units 520B may be used to receive at least a portion of areflected reference signal reflected by the subject. By using the coilunits 520B as the signal receiver may reduce the system complexity andimprove the utilization of the coil units 520B.

It should be noted that the examples in FIG. 9A to 9B are merelyprovided for the purposes of illustration, and not intended to limit thescope of the present disclosure. For persons having ordinary skills inthe art, multiple variations and modifications may be made under theteachings of the present disclosure. However, those variations andmodifications do not depart from the scope of the present disclosure.For example, the shape, size, and arrangement of the coil unitsillustrated in figures are illustrative and can be modified. In someembodiments, the coil units may be arranged in any number of columnsand/or any number of rows. The angle between the first direction and thesecond direction may have any degree greater than 0 degrees and smallerthan 360 degrees. Two adjacent coil units may at least partially overlapwith each other or not overlap at all.

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary ECG signalcurve 1100 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. TheECG signal curve 1100 may include one or more cardiac cycles. As shownin FIG. 11, a cardiac cycle 1106 includes a P-wave 1101 representingatrial depolarization, a QRS complex representing ventriculardepolarization, and a T-wave 1105 representing ventricularrepolarization. The QRS complex may include a Q-wave 1102, an R-wave1103, and an S-wave 1104. The cardiac cycle 1106 begins with the P-wave1101 and ends by a P-wave of a next cardiac cycle.

In some embodiments, the cardiac cycle 1106 may include a plurality ofmotion phases, e.g., systole and diastole as shown in FIG. 11. Thesystole may refer to a period from the beginning of the R-wave to theend of the T-wave, and the diastole may refer to a period from the endof the T-wave to the P-wave of the next cardiac cycle. Normally, duringthe diastole, the heart remains stationary or substantially stationary.The diastole or a portion of the diastole (e.g., a mid-later period inthe diastole) may be regarded as a smooth period of cardiac motion.Optionally, the smooth period may serve as an MR signal acquisitionperiod because that MR signals acquired in this period may be lessaffected by cardiac motion and have higher signal quality compared withMR signals acquired in other periods (e.g., the systole). This mayreduce cardiac motion-induced artifacts in a resulting image.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary processing device120 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Theprocessing device 120 may include a receiving module 1202, adetermination module 1204, and a transmission module 1206. In someembodiments, at least a portion of the processing device 120 may beimplemented on the computing device 300 as illustrated in FIG. 3 or themobile device 400 as illustrated in FIG. 4.

The receiving module 1202 may be configured to receive informationand/or signal related to the MRI system 100. For example, the receivingmodule 1202 may be configured to receive MR signals of a subject fromone or more coil units. As another example, the receiving module 1202may receive a motion signal relating to a physiological motion of thesubject from a sensor before or during an MR scan of the subject. Merelyby way of an example, the receiving module 1202 may receive an ECGsignal from an ECG sensor and/or a respiratory signal from a respiratorysignal detector. More descriptions regarding the receiving of the MRsignals and/or the motion signal may be found elsewhere in the presentdisclosure. See, e.g., operations 1302 and 1310 and the relevantdescription thereof.

The determination module 1204 may be configured to determine a controlsignal based on the motion signal received from the sensor. The controlsignal may be used to control the MRI device. In some embodiments, thecontrol signal may include one or more operation parameters, such as atime parameter, a radiation dose parameter, etc., relating to theoperation of the MRI device. For example, the determination module 1204may determine the control signal including an MR signal acquisition timebased on the motion signal. The MR signal acquisition time may refer toa time point (or period) when the MRI device is controlled to execute anMR scan on the subject. More descriptions regarding the determination ofthe control signal may be found elsewhere in the present disclosure.See, e.g., operation 1304 and the relevant description thereof.

The transmission module 1206 may be configured to transmit informationto one or more components of the MRI system. For example, thetransmission module 1206 may transmit the control signal to the MRIdevice. In some embodiments, the transmission module 1206 may transmitthe control signal to the MRI device directly or indirectly. Forexample, the transmission module 1206 may transmit the control signal tothe MRI device directly to control the MRI device. As another example,the transmission module 1206 may transmit the control signal to acontrol device of the MRI device to control the MRI device.

It should be noted that the above description is merely provided for thepurposes of illustration, and not intended to limit the scope of thepresent disclosure. For persons having ordinary skills in the art,multiple variations and modifications may be made under the teachings ofthe present disclosure. However, those variations and modifications donot depart from the scope of the present disclosure. In someembodiments, the processing device 120 may include one or moreadditional components (e.g., a storage module for data storing) and/orone or more components described above may be omitted. Additionally oralternatively, a module of the processing device 120 may be divided intotwo or more separate units or a plurality of modules of the processingdevice 120 may be integrated into a single module.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process for performingan MR scan on a subject according to some embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In some embodiments, the process 1300 may be implemented inthe MRI system 100 illustrated in FIG. 1. For example, the process 1300may be stored in a storage device (e.g., the storage device 130 and/orthe storage 320) of the MRI system 100 in the form of instructions, andinvoked and/or executed by the processing device 120 (e.g., theprocessor 310 of the computing device 300 as illustrated in FIG. 3, theCPU 440 of the mobile device 400 as illustrated in FIG. 4, or one ormore modules of the processing device 120 illustrated in FIG. 12).

The subject to be scanned may include any biological subject (e.g., apatient) or any non-biological subject (e.g., a man-made object). Forexample, the subject may include a specific portion of a patient, suchas the head, the thorax, the abdomen of the patient, or the like, or acombination thereof. The MR scan may be performed on the subject by anMRI device (e.g., the MRI device 110) that includes a coil assembly(e.g., the coil assembly 112). The coil assembly may include a substrate(e.g., the substrate 510), one or more coil units (e.g., coil unit(s)520), and a sensor (e.g., a sensor 530) mounted within or on thesubstrate. The substrate may be configured to position the coil assemblyduring the scan of the subject, for example, on the chest, the abdomen,and/or the back of the subject. The sensor may be configured to detect amotion signal during and/or before the MR scan.

In 1302, the processing device 120 (e.g., the receiving module 1202) mayreceive a motion signal relating to a physiological motion of thesubject from the sensor before or during the MR scan of the subject.

The physiological motion of the subject may include a cardiac motion, arespiratory motion, a blood flow, a gastrointestinal motion, a skeletalmuscle motion, a brain motion (e.g., a brain pulsation), or the like, orany combination thereof. The motion signal may be acquired by thesensor. For example, the motion signal may include an ECG signaldetected by an ECG sensor that has the same or similar components of theECG sensor 531 as discussed in FIGS. 5 and 6. As another example, themotion signal may include a respiratory signal detected by a respiratorysignal detector that has the same or similar components of therespiratory signal detector 532 as discussed in FIG. 5.

In some embodiments, the processing device 120 may receive the motionsignal from the sensor directly (e.g., via a signal transmissioncomponent of the sensor) or indirectly (e.g., via a network and/oranother component of the MRI system 100). For example, a signaltransmission component (e.g., the signal transmission component 550) ofthe sensor may transmit the motion signal to the processing device 120.As another example, the signal transmission component may transmit themotion signal to a control device (e.g., the control device 250), andthe processing device 120 may receive the motion signal from the controldevice. In some embodiments, the processing device 120 may receive themotion signal from the sensor in real time or intermittently (e.g.,periodically or irregularly).

In some embodiments, the motion signal received from the sensor mayinclude the motion signal itself (e.g., an ECG signal represented by anECG curve as indicated in FIG. 11), as well as information relating tothe motion signal, such as a motion phase, a motion cycle, a motionamplitude, etc. Alternatively, the motion signal may include the motionsignal itself and the processing device 120 may generate the informationrelating to the motion signal by processing the motion signal. Forexample, the processing device 120 may identify a cardiac cycle, systoleand/or diastole in the cardiac cycle based on an ECG signal.

In 1304, the processing device 120 (e.g., the determination module 1204)may determine a control signal based on the motion signal received fromthe sensor.

The control signal may be used to control the MRI device. For example,the control signal may be used to cause the MR device to start an MRscan, terminate or pause an MR scan, or the like, or any combinationthereof. In some embodiments, the control signal may control the one ormore components of the MRI device, such as a magnetic body, a gradientcoil, and an emitting coil, so as to control the MRI device. In someembodiments, the control signal may include one or more operationparameters, such as a time parameter, a radiation dose parameter, etc.,relating to the operation of the MRI device.

As aforementioned, MR signals acquired in a time point (or period) whenthe physiological motion of the subject is smooth may be less affectedby the physiological motion and result in fewer motion artifacts in anMR image generated based on the MR signals so acquired. Thus, it isdesirable to determine the time point (or period) in which thephysiological motion of the subject is smooth based on the motionsignal. For example, the physiological motion at a certain time pointmay be regarded as being smooth if the motion amplitude at the certaintime point is smaller than a first threshold. As another example, thephysiological motion in a certain period may be regarded as being smoothif, for example, the period is within a smooth period of thephysiological motion, a change of the motion amplitude of thephysiological motion within the period is smaller than a secondthreshold, or the like. As yet another example, the physiological motionin consecutive motion cycles may be regarded as being smooth if, forexample, an amplitude difference at the same motion phases in theconsecutive motion cycles is below a third threshold, or the like.

In some embodiments, the processing device 120 may determine the MRsignal acquisition time based on the motion signal. The MR signalacquisition time may refer to a time point (or period) when the MRIdevice is controlled to execute an MR scan on the subject. For example,the MR signal acquisition time may include a time point or period inwhich the physiological motion of the subject is smooth. The processingdevice 120 may further and transmit the control signal to the MRI deviceat the MR signal acquisition time, wherein the control signal may causethe MRI device to execute the MR scan immediately after the controlsignal is received. As another example, the processing device 120 maydetermine a control signal including the MR signal acquisition time, andtransmit the control signal to the MRI device, wherein the controlsignal may cause the MRI device to execute the MR scan at the MR signalacquisition time. In some embodiments, the MR signal acquisition timemay be a continuous period or a discontinuous time period. Bydetermining a suitable MR signal acquisition time based on the motionsignal, an image reconstructed based on MR signals detected in the MRscan may have less motion artifact and higher quality. This techniquefor reducing motion artifact may be referred to as a prospectivecorrection technique or a triggering correction technique.

In some embodiments, the motion signal may include an ECG signalrelating to the cardiac motion of the subject. A diastole or a portionof the diastole (e.g., a mid-later period in the diastole) may beregarded as a smooth period of cardiac motion as described in connectionwith FIG. 11. The MR signal acquisition time may be determined based onthe smooth period and the ECG signal. For example, before the MR scan,the processing device 120 may predict the diastole in a next cardiaccycle as a first MR signal acquisition time based on the current cardiaccycle, and transmit a control signal to the MR device at the first MRsignal acquisition time to actuate the MR scan. As another example,during the MR scan, the motion signal may be transmitted to theprocessing device 120 in real-time. The processing device 120 mayidentify a peak of an R-wave in the current cardiac cycle. Theprocessing device 120 may further generate a control signal including asecond MR signal acquisition time that begins after a certain periodfrom the peak of the R-wave and lasts for a certain period. The controlsignal may be transmitted to the MRI device 110 immediately after it isgenerated and direct the MRI device 110 to execute the MR scan at thesecond MR signal acquisition time.

In some embodiments, the motion signal may include a respiratory signalrelating to the respiratory motion of the subject. Normally, in arespiratory cycle, from an end-exhalation to an end-inhalation, themotion amplitude may increase from a lowest value to a highest value. Aperiod in which the motion amplitude is below a threshold amplitude maybe identified and regarded as a period in which the respiratory motionof the subject is smooth. Additionally or alternatively, the lungsnormally remain stationary or substantially stationary in a smoothperiod of respiratory motion, which lasts from a time point inexhalation (e.g., a time point in a mid-later period in the exhalation)of the current respiratory cycle to the beginning of inhalation in anext respiratory cycle. In some embodiments, the respiratory signal maybe received from the sensor before and/or during the MR scan, and thedetermination of the MR signal acquisition time based on respiratorysignal may be performed in a similar manner as that based on an ECGsignal described above.

In some embodiments, the processing device 120 may determine whether thephysiological motion of the subject is not smooth according to themotion signal. For example, the processing device 120 may determine thatthe physiological motion is not smooth at a certain time point if, forexample, the motion amplitude at the certain time point is greater thanthe first threshold. As another example, the physiological motion in acertain period may be regarded as being not smooth if, for example, theperiod is out of the smooth period of the physiological motion, a changeof the motion amplitude of the physiological motion within the period isgreater than the second threshold, or the like. As yet another example,the physiological motion in consecutive motion cycles may be regarded asbeing unsmooth if, for example, an amplitude difference at the samemotion phases in the consecutive motion cycles is greater than the thirdthreshold, or the like.

In response to a determination that the physiological motion of thesubject is unsmooth, the processing device 120 may determine andtransmit a control signal to cause the MR device to terminate or pausethe MR scan. Optionally, the processing device 120 may also transmit anotification regarding the unsmooth physiological motion (e.g., anotification to reminder a user to help the subject to adjust breathing)to a user terminal (e.g., a terminal 140). The notification may notify auser regarding the occurrence of the unsmooth physiological motion, thetermination or pause of the MR scan, provide a reminder to a patient tocalm down or adjust breathing, or how to make the MR scan to re-start orresume (e.g., by adjusting breathing), or the like, or a combinationthereof.

Additionally or alternatively, the processing device 120 may determinewhether the physiological motion is abnormal according to the motionsignal. For example, if the physiological motion at a certain time pointis greater than a fourth threshold (which is greater than the firstthreshold) and/or an amplitude change during a period is greater than afifth threshold (which is greater than the second threshold), thephysiological motion may be regarded as being abnormal. In response to adetermination that the physiological motion is abnormal, the processingdevice 120 may generate a control signal to terminate (or pause) the MRscan. In some embodiments, if the physiological motion is determined tobe unsmooth but not abnormal during the MR scan, the processing device120 may generate a control signal to continue the MR scan, and correct areconstructed MR image based on the motion signal using a retrospectivemotion correction technique as described hereinafter.

In 1306, the processing device 120 (e.g., the transmission module 1206)may transmit the control signal to the MRI device.

In some embodiments, the control signal may be transmitted to the MRIdevice 110 directly or indirectly. For example, the processing device120 may transmit the control signal to a control device (e.g., thecontrol device 250), and the control device may control the MRI device.In some embodiments, the control signal may be associated with an MRsignal acquisition time as described in connection with operation 1304,and the control signal may be transmitted to the MRI device at or beforethe MR signal acquisition time.

In 1308, the MR scan may be applied to the subject by the MRI deviceaccording to the control signal.

For example, in response to a control signal including an MR signalacquisition time, the MRI device may apply an MR pulse sequence on thesubject at the MR signal acquisition time to obtain MR signals. Asanother example, during an MR scan, in response to a control signal toterminate (or pause) the MR scan, the MRI device may stop emitting RFpulses and terminate (or pause) the MR scan.

In 1310, the processing device 120 (e.g., the receiving module 1202) mayreceive MR signals of the subject from one or more coil units. Forexample, the processing device 120 may receive the MR signal(s) from thecoil unit(s) directly or via one or more other components (e.g., thenetwork 150 and/or a signal transmission component of the coilassembly).

In some embodiments, the processing device 120 may further reconstructan MR image of the subject based on the MR signals and the motionsignal. A compensation correction technique (or also referred to as aprospective correction technique) may be applied in the imagereconstruction based on the motion signal to reduce motion artifact dueto the physiological motion (e.g., heartbeat and/or breathing). Forexample, during the acquisition of the MR signals, a respiratory signalof the subject may be detected and assigned to the MR signals. Based onthe respiratory signal, only MR signals that fulfill a certaincondition, for example, being detected in a period in which thephysiological motion is smooth (e.g., the motion amplitude being smallerthan a threshold) may be identified from the MR signals. The MR image ofthe subject may be reconstructed based on the identified MR signals. Asanother example, MR signals corresponding to a same motion phase orsimilar motion phases (e.g., consecutive motion phases) may beidentified based on the motion signal, and an MR image corresponding tothe motion phase(s) may be generated based on the identified MR signals.Alternatively, the processing device 120 may determine a plurality ofsets of MR signals from the detected MR signals, wherein each setcorresponds to a motion phase of a motion cycle. The processing device120 may further generate a plurality of MR images corresponding to themotion phases based on the sets of MR signals. Merely by way of example,based on an ECG signal, twenty sets of MR signals corresponding totwenty cardiac phases in a cardiac cycle may be determined. Each set ofMR signal corresponding to a cardiac phase may be used to reconstruct anMR image of the corresponding cardiac phase. Optionally, the MR imagescorresponding to different cardiac phases may be displayed in sequenceto dynamically show the cardiac motion of the subject.

In some embodiments, the motion signal may include a respiratory signal.The processing device 120 may utilize a respiratory compensationtechnique, such as a respiratory ordered phase encoding (ROPE)technique, a centrally ordered phase encoding (COPE) technique, a hybridordered phase encoding (HOPE), or the like, or any combination thereofin the MR image reconstruction. For example, based on a respiratorysignal, the processing device 120 may apply a same phase encoding orsimilar phase encodings to MR signals corresponding to a samerespiratory phase or similar respiratory phases in the MR imagereconstruction. In this way, a random phase shift caused by therespiratory motion may be modified into a regular change. In theresulting MR image, motion artifacts may be eliminated or partiallyeliminated (e.g., with remaining artifacts located at the edge of theimage).

It should be noted that the above descriptions regarding the process1300 are merely provided for the purposes of illustration, and notintended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. For personshaving ordinary skills in the art, multiple variations and modificationsmay be made under the teachings of the present disclosure. However,those variations and modifications do not depart from the scope of thepresent disclosure. In some embodiments, the process 1300 may beaccomplished with one or more additional operations not described,and/or without one or more of the operations discussed may be omitted.In some embodiments, during an MR scan, the sensor may transmit themotion signal to the processing device 120 continuously orintermittently (e.g., periodically or irregularly). One or more of theoperations 1302 to 1310 may be performed continuously or intermittentlyduring the MR scan.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes andmodifications can be made in the present disclosure without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the disclosure. In this manner, the presentdisclosure may be intended to include such modifications and variationsif the modifications and variations of the present disclosure are withinthe scope of the appended claims and the equivalents thereof.

Having thus described the basic concepts, it may be rather apparent tothose skilled in the art after reading this detailed disclosure that theforegoing detailed disclosure is intended to be presented by way ofexample only and is not limiting. Various alterations, improvements, andmodifications may occur and are intended to those skilled in the art,though not expressly stated herein. These alterations, improvements, andmodifications are intended to be suggested by this disclosure, and arewithin the spirit and scope of the exemplary embodiments of thisdisclosure.

Moreover, certain terminology has been used to describe embodiments ofthe present disclosure. For example, the terms “one embodiment,” “anembodiment,” and “some embodiments” mean that a particular feature,structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodimentis included in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.Therefore, it is emphasized and should be appreciated that two or morereferences to “an embodiment” or “one embodiment” or “an alternativeembodiment” in various portions of this specification are notnecessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, theparticular features, structures or characteristics may be combined assuitable in one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

Further, it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects ofthe present disclosure may be illustrated and described herein in any ofa number of patentable classes or context including any new and usefulprocess, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new anduseful improvement thereof. Accordingly, aspects of the presentdisclosure may be implemented entirely hardware, entirely software(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or combiningsoftware and hardware implementation that may all generally be referredto herein as a “module,” “unit,” “component,” “device,” or “system.”Furthermore, aspects of the present disclosure may take the form of acomputer program product embodied in one or more computer readable mediahaving computer readable program code embodied thereon.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including electro-magnetic, optical, or thelike, or any suitable combination thereof. A computer readable signalmedium may be any computer readable medium that is not a computerreadable storage medium and that may communicate, propagate, ortransport a program for use by or in connection with an instructionexecution system, apparatus, or device. Program code embodied on acomputer readable signal medium may be transmitted using any appropriatemedium, including wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, or thelike, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of thepresent disclosure may be written in any combination of one or moreprogramming languages, including an object oriented programming languagesuch as Java, Scala, Smalltalk, Eiffel, JADE, Emerald, C++, C #, VB.NET, Python or the like, conventional procedural programming languages,such as the “C” programming language, Visual Basic, Fortran 2003, Perl,COBOL 2002, PHP, ABAP, dynamic programming languages such as Python,Ruby and Groovy, or other programming languages. The program code mayexecute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer,as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer andpartly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer orserver. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected tothe user's computer through any type of network, including a local areanetwork (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may bemade to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using anInternet Service Provider) or in a cloud computing environment oroffered as a service such as a Software as a Service (SaaS).

Furthermore, the recited order of processing elements or sequences, orthe use of numbers, letters, or other designations therefore, is notintended to limit the claimed processes and methods to any order exceptas may be specified in the claims. Although the above disclosurediscusses through various examples what is currently considered to be avariety of useful embodiments of the disclosure, it is to be understoodthat such detail is solely for that purpose, and that the appendedclaims are not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on thecontrary, are intended to cover modifications and equivalentarrangements that are within the spirit and scope of the disclosedembodiments. For example, although the implementation of variouscomponents described above may be embodied in a hardware device, it mayalso be implemented as a software only solution, e.g., an installationon an existing server or mobile device.

Similarly, it should be appreciated that in the foregoing description ofembodiments of the present disclosure, various features are sometimesgrouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereoffor the purpose of streamlining the disclosure aiding in theunderstanding of one or more of the various embodiments. This method ofdisclosure, however, is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intentionthat the claimed subject matter requires more features than areexpressly recited in each claim. Rather, claim subject matter lie inless than all features of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment.

In some embodiments, the numbers expressing quantities or propertiesused to describe and claim certain embodiments of the application are tobe understood as being modified in some instances by the term “about,”“approximate,” or “substantially.” For example, “about,” “approximate,”or “substantially” may indicate a certain variation (e.g., ±1%, ±5%,±10%, or ±20%) of the value it describes, unless otherwise stated.Accordingly, in some embodiments, the numerical parameters set forth inthe written description and attached claims are approximations that mayvary depending upon the desired properties sought to be obtained by aparticular embodiment. In some embodiments, the numerical parametersshould be construed in light of the number of reported significantdigits and by applying ordinary rounding techniques. Notwithstandingthat the numerical ranges and parameters setting forth the broad scopeof some embodiments of the application are approximations, the numericalvalues set forth in the specific examples are reported as precisely aspracticable. In some embodiments, a classification condition used inclassification is provided for illustration purposes and modifiedaccording to different situations. For example, a classificationcondition that “a probability value is greater than the threshold value”may further include or exclude a condition that “the probability valueis equal to the threshold value.”

What is claimed is:
 1. A coil assembly of a magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) device, wherein the MRI device is configured to perform a magneticresonance (MR) scan on a subject, and the coil assembly comprises: oneor more coil units configured to receive an MR signal from the subjectduring the MR scan; a substrate configured to position the one or morecoil units during the MR scan, the one or more coil units being mountedwithin or on the substrate; and a sensor mounted within or on thesubstrate, the sensor being configured to detect a motion signalrelating to a physiological motion of the subject before or during theMR scan.
 2. The coil assembly of claim 1, wherein: the substrateincludes a proximal surface and a distal surface with respect to thesubject, the proximal surface and the distal surface being opposite toeach other, and the sensor is mounted on the proximal surface of thesubstrate.
 3. The coil assembly of claim 1, wherein the physiologicalmotion includes a cardiac motion of the subject, the sensor includes anelectrocardiogram (ECG) sensor configured to detect a signal relating tothe cardiac motion of the subject, and the ECG sensor further comprises:a signal emitter configured to emit a reference signal toward thesubject, the reference signal being reflected by the subject; and asignal receiver configured to receive at least a portion of thereflected reference signal from the subject.
 4. The coil assembly ofclaim 3, wherein the signal emitter comprises: a signal generatorconfigured to generate a preliminary reference signal; a signalamplifier configured to generate the reference signal by amplifying thepreliminary reference signal; and a transmitting antenna configured toemit the reference signal toward the subject.
 5. The coil assembly ofclaim 3, wherein the signal receiver comprises: a receiving antennaconfigured to receive the at least a portion of the reflected referencesignal; a signal amplifier configured to amplify the received portion ofthe reflected reference signal; and a signal mixer configured togenerate a mixed signal by mixing the reference signal with theamplified portion of the reflected reference signal, the mixed signalbeing the signal relating to the cardiac motion of the subject.
 6. Thecoil assembly of claim 3, wherein: the signal receiver furthercomprises: a receiving antenna configured to receive at least a portionof the reflected reference signal; a signal amplifier configured toamplify the received portion of the reflected reference signal; and asignal mixer configured to generate a mixed signal by mixing thereference signal with the amplified portion of the reflected referencesignal, and the MRI device further comprises a signal processingcomponent configured to determine the signal relating to the cardiacmotion of the subject based on the mixed signal.
 7. The coil assembly ofclaim 6, wherein the signal processing component is integrated into theECG sensor.
 8. The coil assembly of claim 3, wherein at least a portionof the signal receiver is integrated into the one or more coil units. 9.The coil assembly of claim 3, wherein the reference signal is acontinuous wave signal with a time-varying frequency.
 10. The coilassembly of claim 2, wherein the substrate includes at least one offabric, plastic, polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyester,ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT),polycarbonate (PC), polyoxymethylene (POM), polyurethane (PU),polystyrene (PS), nylon, cotton, fiber, or resin
 11. The coil assemblyof claim 1, wherein the physiological motion includes a respiratorymotion of the subject, and the sensor includes a respiratory signaldetector configured to detect a signal relating to the respiratorymotion of the subject.
 12. The coil assembly of claim 11, wherein therespiratory signal detector comprises: a motion sensor configured todetect a signal relating to the respiratory motion of the subject, themotion sensor including at least one of a pressure sensor, anaccelerometer, a speed sensor, or a gravity sensor; and a pad configuredto accommodate the motion sensor.
 13. The coil assembly of claim 1, thecoil assembly further comprising a signal transmission component,wherein the signal transmission component is operably connected to thesensor and configured to transmit the motion signal to a control deviceof the MRI device, and the control device is configured to control theMRI device according to the motion signal.
 14. The coil assembly ofclaim 13, further comprising an MR signal processing device, wherein:the MR signal processing device is operably connected to the one or morecoil units and the signal transmission component, the MR signalprocessing device is configured to process the MR signal and transmitthe processed MR signal to the signal transmission component, and thesignal transmission component is further configured to transmit theprocessed MR signal to the control device.
 15. The coil assembly ofclaim 14, wherein the MR signal processing device comprises: a low noiseamplifier (LNA) configured to amplify the MR signal; and a filterconfigured to generate the processed MR signal by filtering theamplified MR signal.
 16. The coil assembly of claim 1, wherein thesubstrate includes two or more layers that form a chamber, and at leasta portion of the one or more coil units and the sensor is mounted withinthe chamber.
 17. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, comprising:an MRI device comprising a coil assembly, the coil assembly comprisingone or more coil units, a substrate configured to position the coilassembly during a magnetic resonance (MR) scan of a subject, and asensor mounted within or on the substrate, the sensor being configuredto detect a motion signal of the subject; at least one storage deviceincluding a set of instructions; and at least one processor configuredto communicate with the at least one storage device and the MRI device,wherein when executing the set of instructions, the at least oneprocessor is configured to direct the system to perform operationsincluding: receiving, from the sensor, a motion signal relating to aphysiological motion of the subject before or during the MR scan of thesubject; determining, by the at least one processor, a control signalbased on the motion signal; and transmitting, to the MRI device, thecontrol signal; applying, by the MRI device, the MR scan to the subjectaccording to the control signal; and receiving, from the one or morecoil units, one or more MR signals of the subject.
 18. The MRI system ofclaim 16, wherein to transmit a control signal to control the MRI deviceaccording to the motion signal, the at least one processor is furtherconfigured to direct the system to perform additional operationsincluding: determining, based on the motion signal, an MR signalacquisition time; and transmitting, to the MRI device, the controlsignal to the MRI device at the MR signal acquisition time, wherein thecontrol signal causes the MRI device to execute the MR scan at the MRsignal acquisition time.
 19. The MRI system of claim 16, wherein themotion signal is received from the sensor during the MR scan, and totransmit a control signal to control the MRI device according to themotion signal, the at least one processor is further configured todirect the system to perform additional operations including:determining, based on the motion signal, whether the physiologicalmotion of the subject is smooth; and in response to a determination thatthe physiological motion of the subject is not smooth, transmitting tothe MRI device, the control signal that causes the MRI device toterminate or pause the MR scan.
 20. The MRI system of claim 16, whereinthe at least one processor is further configured to direct the system toperform additional operations including: reconstructing, based on theone or more MR signals of the subject, one or more MR images of thesubject; and correcting, based on the motion signal, the one or more MRimages.